Weight Watchers Chat #384: “Sugar, Fiber and Carbs…Oh My!”

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News and Reviews

  • Today is the start of the “Add Vegetables With Every Meal!” challenge hosted by Julie over on the If You Have an Egg Facebook Group. It’s not a competition, just a great way to challenge yourself and get some extra encouragement!
  • The egg recall I mentioned a couple of weeks ago has reached Class 1 according to the FDA so please check your fridge NOW! “The recall of Milo’s Poultry Farm eggs is now class I, meaning there “is a reasonable probability that use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 
    • The recalled eggs are chicken and duck eggs sold under four brand names:
      • Milo’s Poultry Farms
      • Tony’s Fresh Market
      • Happy Quackers Farm
      • M&E Family Farms
    • The recalled eggs were sold in three states:
      • Wisconsin
      • Illinois
      • Michigan
    • Nine states have reported illnesses linked to the recall:
      • California
      • Colorado
      • Iowa
      • Illinois
      • Michigan
      • Minnesota
      • Utah
      • Virginia
      • Wisconsin

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Last week was Chat #383: “Find Your Fit!”

Halloween. Thanksgiving. Office Party. Birthday Party x 2. Christmas Eve. Christmas Day. News Year’s Eve. New Year’s Day.

That’s 9 days of celebrating I have to “fit in” between now and the end of the year. How is this going to “fit”? Let’s dig in!

Fall Fanatic or Fall Apart?

With so many posts about PSL’s and breaking out scarves it’s hard to remember that some of us have anxiety about these last three months of the year. The days are growing shorter, the time will change for many of us soon, and I have more than a handful of close friends who already feel the dread of what both leaving and coming home from work in the dark does to their attitude. How about you? Are you a soup and sweater, bring on the cold weather person? Or do we need to talk about some ways to avoid those winter blues that are already creeping in?

Q4 Projections

Like any good business, we aren’t going to wait until Dec 15th to decide what we want out of the rest of this year. The management of your health is your business. You need to decide now if you will set a goal to lose weight in the last quarter of the year or maintain where you are now. There is nothing wrong with a period of intentional maintenance. If you don’t know how to change that in your app just let me know and I’ll be happy to show you!

All The Other Days

At the beginning of this section I said I had 9 days of celebrating to fit into the remaining 87 days left this year. That means I have SEVENTY-EIGHT other days to make good decisions, track, prep some healthy food. 78 is a heckuvuh lot of days to do something with. I’m going to start deciding how to find my fit with all the other days, what about you?

 

Your homework was #AllTheOtherDays. Make your own list of how many holidays, celebrations, etc you foresee between now and Jan 1st. Now subtract that from 87 and let us know what you plan to do with #AllTheOtherDays!

Let’s see how you did:

  • Lynn only has 4 days of celebrating between now and the end of the year so she’s got alot of other days to be on track with her plan!
  • Sarah is making plans now for how she will stay on track and do some pre-planning for all the other days!
  • Nicole has just over 60 days that don’t have a celebration or meal out of her control between now and the end of the year. She’s making a commitment now to pre-track the day before each of those days because once it’s in her tracker she’s less likely to change it!

 

Bravo, you did it!

 

This Week’s Topic: “Sugar, Fiber and Carbs…Oh My!” 

Quick, when I say carbs what’s the first word that pops into your mind?

 

I bet the words “essential macronutrient” weren’t first on your tongue. Why should it be? Let’s dig in!

Eliminating Entire Food Groups is Not a Good Idea

There are diets that ask us to eliminate entire food groups. While it may be ok to eliminate certain forms of that food, or limit certain foods, eliminating entire nutrient groups like carbs is a really bad idea. Why?

  • Carbohydrates are the body’s main source of fuel
  • Consuming plenty of complex carbohydrates like fruit, vegetables and whole grains could help to control weight
  • Fiber is actually a type of carbohydrate. Fiber is a complex carbohydrate found naturally in plant based foods

 

Your Brain on Carbs

Simple sugars like table sugar, honey, agave, maple syrup don’t offer much nutritional benefit and are less filling than fiber rich carbohydrates.

On the other hand, fiber rich carbohydrates like fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, peas and lentils play many roles in your body AND your brain. Your brain’s preferred energy source is carbs. Let me say this another way, carbs are a necessary source of fuel for your brain. One more time…consuming enough good for you complex carbohydrates can reduce feelings of “brain fog”, anxiety, depression, lack of focus on and on. I don’t know about you but brain fog, anxiety, depression and a lack of focus usually makes me turn to simple sugars for a quick fix and crash. That’s a vicious cycle my brain (and subsequently my body) can do without!

 

Let’s Focus On Fiber

So we need good carbs. Complex carbs. And fiber as we just found out is a complex carbohydrate. Ergo..if we focus on fiber we are focusing on the good carbs that our brain and our body need as an essential macronutrient. So let’s make it simple and focus on fiber. Who’s with me?

 

This Week’s Homework: #FocusOnFiber

Your homework for this week is #FocusOnFiber. I mean this really can’t be more simple. Simply focusing on fiber in any natural form completes your homework. No this is not a trick. Tell us ONE, just one thing you will eat this week with naturally occurring fiber and boom, homework done!  Now DO YOUR HOMEWORK because I promise there is someone who needs the idea you have already rattling around in your head. Whatever it is let us know, I promise your decision to participate this week will help you AND someone else!  Then type it, snap it, share it however you like, and then tag me for your next cool badge!

 

Don’t forget to do your homework #FocusOnFiber and tag me when you share on social media!

 

Extra Credit: How Much Water Should You Drink?

We have been focusing on fiber, but what else do we need to be focusing on?

 

If we talk about fiber, you have to talk about water too!

If you consume fiber but don’t drink enough water, it could turn into a brick in your stomach and lead to a completely different problem. Water is so important when you are consuming fiber! There are fruits and veggies that have water in them, like cucumbers and watermelons. You don’t HAVE to just drink plain water to meet your water goals. But why is water so important, and how much should we really be drinking every day?

Water makes up the largest component of the body. In kids, it is 70% of their body! That’s crazy! In adults, its roughly 60%!

The body loses water every single day by urination, sweating, and even BREATHING! As you get older, it is also harder to realize that you are thirsty. You aren’t as active as you are when you’re a kid or young adult, so it makes it easy to forget that you need to be drinking water throughout the day. And you can actually get so dehydrated that your brain constricts! If you get to the point where you have a dehydration headache, you are already TOO DEHYDRATED. That is so scary to think about!

Benefits to Drinking Water:

  • Protects Your Heart
  • Keeps Kidneys Healthy
  • Prevents Headaches
  • Helps with Weight Loss

For years, I thought it had to be plain “unadulterated” water for it to count as drinking water. No flavoring, no fizz, nothing. That’s just simply not the case!

I’ve also been told that every single one of us needs to drink 64oz of water, of 8 cups a day. But actually according to the National Academy of Medicine, they advise that men have 104 oz and women should get 72 oz. That’s nine cups of water for us ladies and 12 cups for men! I HAVE TO DRINK NINE CUPS OF WATER?!?! I thought I needed 8… how in the world am I going to squeeze in another cup? Let’s figure it out together!

First thing, it does NOT have to be plain water. I do enjoy spring water, but you can count other things as water!

Things you can count as water:

  • Your cup of coffee in the morning! The average mug holds a little bit more than 8oz of coffee, so there is your first cup of water already!
  • If you went out to lunch with some friends and you had a glass of unsweet tea / diet soda / lemon water… you’ve had another 1 1/2 cups! As long as it doesn’t have any extra calories in it… it counts!
  • Need a little afternoon pick me up? Grab yourself a mason jar with a presweetened tea bag, and you’re up over the 4 cup mark for the day already!
  • For dinner, lets say you’re going to have a diet coke/dr. pepper and they are usually 12oz… another cup for the day!
  • And something as simple as having a large tumbler of water while you are working, exercising, running errands in the car… fill one of those up once or twice throughout the day and you’ll be able to hit your goal in no time!

Things you CANNOT count as water:

  • alcoholic beverages (ex. beer or wine)
  • juices (even fruit juices)
  • any liquid with sugar or calories in it (artificial sweeteners do not count!)

 

What are some ways that you all will increase your amount of water you drink every day? Let us know in the comments below!

 

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